Friday, May 31, 2013

Instagram Shots — Before and After

I loveInstagram, the smart phone app! It is one
of the coolest social media platforms as it allows us to express who we are
through the photos we take.

Through Instagram’s built-in
filters and additional applications, it’s possible for an average person to
look like a professional photographer. It’s great to see your images come to
life!

Also, Instagram is a terrific
social channel for discovering people and communicating with them. You can
participate by posting photos; by following the photo streams of other users;
by liking and commenting; or simply participate as a spectator. In any case,
you will be treated to new and interesting photos every moment of the day, and
can converse with people, unhampered by a 140 character limit.

Having spent a great deal of
my life standing beside photographers as I direct photo shoots, it’s a lot
of fun to actually be the shooter. I’ve not read any “how-tos” regarding
Instagram, and came about the following suggestions through trial and error. So,
I’m by no means an expert. But if you consider a few of the following tips, you
could end up with even cooler pictures than you would otherwise.

What should you shoot?

You can shoot anything and
everything. A couple of people I follow post ONLY photos of their pets. Some
people shoot pictures of food. One friend shot an amazing series of African
violets. It can be anything you like — family photos, pictures from your
vacation, social gatherings, pets, cityscapes, found objects — really, the
sky’s the limit!

When I’m out and about each
day, whether it is heading to a parking lot after a meeting, shopping for
groceries, or just going for a walk, I have my iPhone in my pocket. And if I
see something that strikes me, I’ll stop and snap a photo.

Instagram has caused me to
view the world in a completely new way, because all around us there are
interesting things.I’m a firm believer
that almost every average-quality photo, even of the most mundane subjects, can
be processed into something pretty nice on Instagram.

Shoot images that are in
focus.

Most photos will look best if
they are in focus and at least somewhat well lit. When a photo is blurry or too
dark, sometimes cool effects can result, but often it just looks like a dark,
blurry, grainy picture.

It’s easy to throw something
OUT of focus on Instagram, but you can’t really make a blurry photo sharp.

To focus on the iPhone, tap
the area of the screen you want to be sharp. The camera focus box will appear,
and the lens will adjust.If you are
shooting with the benefit of a tripod or mount, or by resting your phone
against a solid, plumb surface, like a table or wall, your shots will be in
focus. If your shots are hand-held, the key is to be as still as you can. If
you anchor your biceps against your body then hold your breath when you shoot,
it improves the chances of a sharp picture.

A sub-category of shooting
sharp, in-focus photos, is shooting straight. For example, when you shoot a
lake, and the horizon line is leaning a bit, it can look odd. The same goes
with buildings. So if you find you can’t shoot a straight picture, skew the
angle on purpose. It can result in some great photos, and purposely tilting the
shot releases you from trying to establish a parallel line.

Because this picture was in focus, nice details in the leaves and colors could be enhanced.

Even a puddle, if it’s in focus, can turn into something nice.

This image was in focus and well lit, so looked good with no filter.

Lighting Considerations.

Because Instagram has
incorporated the ability to correct lighting, you can take under- or
over-exposed photos and still make them work.

It’s possible to save a lot
of dark photos with Instagram’s brightness adjustment, but it’s helpful if you
have some highlight and shadow detail in the first place. If you shoot during
the day with available light, you’ll probably be fine. At night you might find
your images become grainy. I’m not crazy about the way photos look with a
flash, so I usually try to shoot with available light, even at dusk. But this
application is so forgiving, that even if you don’t start out with a reasonable
shot, you can often adjust it to work.

It looked like there wasn’t enough light in this photo, but the filter enhanced the sky and building details.

This shot was washed out with too much light, but the saturation was adjusted in Instagram.

Shot at dusk, the building looked dark and flat, but the detail was enhanced through filtering.

Shoot wide.

This is one of the options I
frequently ask of any of the professional photographers I hire. Normally I’ll
ask for a range from close-up to wide, horizontal and vertical, but by shooting
wide, it gives you the flexibility to find a good crop in most any shape.
Instagram for the most part is a square. I almost always start with a vertical
picture because it’s my preference. Having room around the “live area” of the
photo means flexibility in cropping, which can often save a mediocre or crummy
photo.

Basically a pretty dark and junky shot, but cleaned up okay once it was cropped and filtered.

The rogue yellow daisy diverted attention from this amazing flower. Lit well, this required no filter.

I cropped out the train cars in the distance to emphasize the dynamic lines of the tracks.

Enlargement and Cropping and
filters

The final piece of advice is
to look at images in a new way by experimenting by enlarging and cropping your
images. If a photo is boring, see if there is part of the image that is
salvageable, or if there are extraneous things in the shot that detract from
the photo, get rid of them. Sometimes you know exactly which filter you want to
use and other times, it’s fun to try the image with different filters to see
what you will find.

This original looked hopeless, but the flag was usable. Combined with this filter, it looked vintage.

Cropped so the focus was on the logo on this vintage fire truck instead of the building around it.

This tree was neat, but had unattractive junk around it. A tight crop saved it.

Are you ready?

Having offered the preceding
suggestions, I really don’t think there is a right or wrong way to shoot photos
for Instagram. Some of the weirdest pictures can become wonderful. Just enjoy
the surprises you discover once you’re processing your photos, then share them
for others to enjoy!

Do you have a favorite
filter, or favorite auxiliary application to use with Instagram? I would love
to hear what they are!

13 comments:

I love Instagram! I have found it is the best place to view artists. Some post pictures of their work in progress, some just finished pieces, all follow other artists and I have discovered many by looking through the likes on the 'Following' News page.My best tip is for my phone, the HTC Vivid. This particular one has a little bit of a touchier auto-focus when using Instagram than my first Vivid, so I take the picture with the phone's camera, problem solved!

I would love to see your Instagram photos. I created an account when the app first came out using Facebook. I cannot get back into my account. I've tried everything...all my emails, filling out forms on Instragram, and tweeting to them. No response and a circle of non helpful information on their website.

Thank you so much for reading and commenting here. When time is so dear for everyone, I'm doubly honored when someone is willing to expend the energy!

I'm sorry you are having trouble accessing your account. I think if you go to:https://instagr.am/accounts/login/?next=/accounts/edit/ You will see your username (third line down)

Also, I found this on a forum: [SIC]

As for Its easy!!!!! all u have to do is make another account and type in one of ur friends names on search that u had on ur other account and go to followers or following and find ur pic and u will see ur name!!

As for resetting the password, try this link: http://help.instagram.com/409847499070242It would help if you remember your original password, but it gives you an optional choice to reset via Facebook. That being said, with recent changes regarding passwords on Google and Facebook, I don't know if this is up to date.

Jeanette, with your beautiful gardens and surroundings, it would seem you have a treasure trove of amazing visual sources of inspiration to sharet on Instagram! I hope to see you there!

Oh, and to see my feed, here is a link: http://ink361.com/terrinakamura

Warm regards, Terri

PS. I searched for you using your name, and was unable to locate you. Is it possible you didn't complete the login/registration? Last resort: Start a new account!

Gosh, I so enjoyed chatting with you about typography, design and other stuff this evening!

Thank you very much for checking out this post. There are a couple of friends on Instagram I've watched struggle with issues such as low-light and lack of focus, and I thought by writing this post, they *might* see it and benefit from it.

But judging by their images, I'm pretty sure they didn't read the blog post, or if they did, chose to ignore my suggestions since their images are still not as good as they COULD be.

The iPhone has been a game changer in so many ways. In some cases you can almost get away with using the images for serious purposes.

The iPhone and IG have brought an artful appreciation to the masses, and anything that encourages positive creativity is great!

Thanks again for stopping by! Looking forward to hearing how it goes with your students!

While crossing the oceans\seas of the world, I do not have with me an iphone...however, my T-Mobile Galaxy Pad is 'Android' and does take great pics and video. I just choose to have the T-Mobile internet service to the unit suspended for the time that I am away from the States. That is because I can't get a signal to access the internet with the Pad anyway, once the ship gets a short distance away from the coast. At least I can still take pics and video with the Pad...to send via email later, once I restore my service with T-Mobile. With the USB attachment, it's possible to upload the pics I take, to the ship's computer, where I can then send them via the Internet.As for joining Instagram...I don't really think I will, but again, I do appreciate the information you expertly provided. Due back to the States near the end of Aug...and hope to display a lot of pics from the past 6-months' travels aboard the ship via Twitter. See you there. - big ((HUGS)) :-)